But Dinklage has no need to be embarrassed by this photo. On the contrary, I think he’s pulling the look off. The yearbook quote that is cut off in the photo is from playwright Sam Shepard: “Words are tools of imagery in motion.” That quote is just the right level of endearingly pretentious and should ring a bell for anyone who was into the theater scene in high school. Dinklage previously described his time in high school to Playboy:

High school is a funny thing. On one hand you’re so fragile. But I
thought I was William Burroughs by the age of 13, so I had this
massive ego as well. Everything in high school feels like it’s life or
death. I went to a pretty athletic high school, and I didn’t have many
friends. I remember once talking to my best friend, and we came up
with the idea that we should hang ourselves off the bell tower.
“That’ll show them.” We totally had no inclination to commit real
suicide at all; we just liked the idea of the whole town responding to
this tragedy, how the school would mourn. Oh God, we were so dramatic.